By ELI JACE >
A shot of hot jazz right through your front window.
The group is a trio of avant-garde musicians based out of Chicago. Ben Cruz plays guitar, Emerson Hunton attacks the drumset and Jason Stein gives it all a menacing glow with the bass clarinet. Stein performs the bass clarinet like a detuned 8-string metal guitar. I've never heard anything like it in a jazz-based ensemble. At times the thing drags on the floor sounding like a tuba blowing out chimney smoke.
Silver Dollar is rooted in the ethos of jazz.
On first take the music easily falls into that category with its freedom of movement and rhythm, of instrumentation, but it stretches further than that. The album starts off with "And When Circumstances Arise," a more straightforward odd-timed jazz splash. But throughout the album's 8 tracks the sound shifts from cinematic film noir scorings to wandering soundscapes to sludge jazz-metal.
Stein really lets it drop on the album's title track, which will be available as a single on May 13, Wednesday. The label of free jazz, NoBusiness Records, will release Silver Dollar on compact disc May 29.
